Cigarette-snuffing attachment for ash trays



Dec. 13, 1966 M. G. THOMSON 3,291,13g

CIGARETTE-SNUFFING ATTACHMENT FOR ASH TRYS Filed April 20, 1964 INVENTOR.

MONROE G. THOMSON BY 38 s 3 (Lu/2 mm ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,291,138 CIGARETTE-SNUFFING ATTACHMENT FOR ASH TRAYS Monroe G. Thomson, 219 9th St., San Francisco, Calif. Filed Apr. 20, 1964, Ser. No. 361,098 1 Claim. (Cl. 131-256) This invention relates to cigarette-shutting attachments for ash trays, and more particularly to such attachments of a construction which makes them adaptable for installation on a wide range of ash trays.

In many public places, such as passenger aircraft, hotel lobbies and auditoriums, as well as elsewhere, there is a substantial danger of fire from incompletely extinguished cigarettes in conventional ash trays. The crushing of cigarettes, which is the usual method of extinction in conventional ash trays, often leaves smoldering remnants which constitute a fire hazard. A much more eifective method of extinction is to introduce the lighted end of the cigarette into a hollow cylinder of non-combustible material of a diameter only slightly larger than the cigarette and closed at one end. In such a cylinder, the cigarette is totally extinguished, usually is less than five seconds, by the consumption of the oxygen in the cylinder.

It is the object of the invention to provide such a snuffing attachment which can be easily attached to the most common types of existing ash trays in hazard areas: the flat type usual for stationary applications, and the bucket type usually found in mobile applications; and which may also be used on cigarette lighters.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an attachment of the type described which has an adhesivecoated flange for attachment to fiat surfaces, which flange is readily removed for suspension use in a bucket type ash tray.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from a perusal of the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective of the device of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cutaway perspective showing its attachment to a typical ash tray of the flat type;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section of a typical bucket type ash tray showing the device of the invention in place therein;

FIG. 4 is a bottom perspective view of a cigarette lighter using the device of this invention; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective, partly cut away, of the lower portion of the device.

In FIG. 1, the device of the invention is generally shown at It). It consists of a cylinder 12, preferably made of metal such as aluminum, but which can equally well be made of heat-resistant plastic or other suitable material. The cylinder 12 is closed at one end by an integrally formed end wall 14.

Radially extending flanges 16, 18 are integrally formed with the cylinder 12 at its open and closed ends, respectively. The flange 18 may be provided at its underside with a coating 20 of adhesive material of a composition suitable for adhering the device to a flat surface of an ash tray made of glass, metal, ceramic or plastic material. The adhesive layer may in turn be covered by a removable layer 22 of a material suitable to preserve its adhesive qualities until used.

A kerf 24 (FIG. 5) may preferably be formed at the junction of flange 18 with the cylinder 12, so that the flange 18 can be cleanly broken off cylinder 12 by twisting it with pliers if desired. It will be understood that the sectioned pie-shaped cutout in FIG. 5 is for illustration only and does not exist in the actual device.

3,291,138 Patented Dec. 13, 1966 In operation, the device of this invention is processed, depending on the type of ash tray to which it is to be applied, in one of the following ways:

For attachment to a flat type ash tray, such as that shown in FIG. 2, the protective layer '22 is simply peeled off to expose the adhesive layer 20, and the device 10 is then pressed into place onto the flat surface 26 of the ash tray 28 to which it is to be attached. In this condition, the flange 18 and its adhesion to the ash tray surface, at the greatest possible distance from the longitudinal axis of the device, considerably increase the stability of the device against detachment by lateral impact against the upper flange 16. At the same time, a lateral impact stress against the flange 16 or the body of the cylinder 12 is not likely to result in detachment of the cylinder 12 from the flange 18, because the stress is evenly distributed around the entire perimeter of the cylinder 12 along the kerf 24.

If, on the other hand, it is desired to utilize the device of this invention in a bucket type ash tray such as shown in FIG. 3, it is normally desirable not only to locate the snufiing attachment close to the upper edge of the bucket, but also to make it removable for possible cleaning purposes. For this purpose, the device 10 is installed as follows:

A typical bucket type ash tray is shown in FIG. 3 at 30. It has a cover 32 which may be hinged as at 34, and it has a built-in L-shaped cigarette crushing bracket 36. The crushing bracket 36 is of the conventional type usually found in automobile or aircraft ash trays in which a metal surface is provided with an aperture therein, so that the cigarette can be crushed against the metal surface, and the extinguished remnants can fall through the opening into the bucket 38. For the purpose of installing the device 10 in an ash tray of this type, it may be necessary to enlarge the aperture 40 in the crushing bracket 36 to the diameter of the cylinder 12.

The device 10 is prepared for insertion into the bucket type ash tray by removing the flange 18, as by twisting it off with pliers or with any other convenient hand tool. The annular kerf 24 is preferably made deep enough so that a slight bending of the flange 18 at any one particular point breaks through the kerf 24. Upon repeating this operation at several points around the periphery of the cylinder 12, the flange 18 can easily be detached from the cylinder 12.

When the flange 18 has been detached from the cylinder 12, the device can be inserted into the aperture 40 of the crushing bracket 36, and it will be retained by the flange 16 in suspension on the bracket 36. In this condition, the flange with its adhesive having been removed, there is no adhesive left to gather dust and ashes at the underside of the bottom 14 of device 10; and the device 10 can be easily removed from the ash tray for cleaning if desired.

The use of the device of this invention is not restricted to ash trays. For example, when the lower flange is removed, the device may be press-fitted into an aperture formed in the case of a cigarette lighter such as illustrated at 42 in FIG. 4. In such a case, the device 10 is preferably so positioned that the flange 16 protrudes beyond the sides of the case so as to remind the user by touch of the presence of the device.

It will be seen that the present invention provides a simple, universal cigarette-snuffing attachment for ash trays which is readily usable with both flat and bucket type ash trays, these being the major types usually found in hazard areas in which the attachment of a cigarettesnuffing device would be desirable. Obviously, the concept of this invention can be carried out in many dilferent ways, and I therefore do not desire to be limited to the embodiment shown and described herein, but rather only by the scope of the following claim.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A cigarette-snufiing device for ash tray-s, comprising: a hollow cylinder of non-combustible material closed at one end and open at the other end, fixed flange means extending radially of said open end, and flat planar flange means attached to and extending radially of the cylinder at the closed end thereof; said last-named flange means having adhesive means attached thereto for attachment of said device to a surface, and one face of said last-named flange means having a circular groove therein adjacent to the cylinder and of a strength such as to allow severance of said last-named flange means from said cylinder by local application of a torsional stress exceeding the normal lateral operational stress on said cylinder when said last-named flange is adhered to a surface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 156,464 12/ 1949 Robbins. 5 1,372,124 3/1921 Downey 131-235 1,928,041 9/ 1933 Windesheim. 2,231,776 2/ 1941 Seelinger 131-235 2,309,011 1/1943 Porter 131-256 2,318,149 5/1943 Ferman 131-235 10 2,652,944 9/1953 Visser 131235 X 2,737,956 3/1956 Casper 131-235 2,778,365 1/1957 Silverman et al. 13l235 2,936,765 5/ 1960 Talkington 13 1235 FOREIGN PATENTS 15 675,242 10/1929 France. 1,146,142 5/1957 France.

SAMUEL KOREN, Primary Examiner.

20 JOSEPH S. REICH, Examiner. 

